Ya I don't miss that place at all, and Im sure last weekend was crazy down there due to the all star game.

 

I had my STR parked in a hospital parking lot visiting a family member. My brother met me at the hospital and after talking some stuff over he wants to see my car. As we're going over it I popped the hood and when I go to close it my leaper falls to the ground. The wires look very frayed.

My theory is someone did a few seconds of hard yanking, got spooked and walked off.

I changed to a flat badge.

 

Where do u get a flat badge? Simple change? Why do people steal the leaper?

 

Thats crazy because I usually take my STR over to the Millennia Mall every now and then and knock on wood I never had it happen to me. Plus there are many cameras around at the parking lot. Hmmm.....sorry to hear that though, you can find the jaguar badges on Ebay or even at the dealer. I would suggest ebay first. Yeah All STar weekend was crazy though, I hardly drove around downtown Orlando because of that shiat. Jammed packed, long ques just to see the NBA players; worse than waiting in one of the lines at Disney!!!

Good Luck.

 

When I first bought my STR used few years back, the guy lived up in Dallas, TX, and the leaper was missing, I asked what happened he told me someone yanked it off, I was like Ohhhhhh. But I liked it without the leaper at the time, and never knew about the Jaguar badges instead of the leapers, so I bought one off from Ebay, and it kinda grew on me, but now I'm having Second thoughts, lolz

Chris, I'm debating on which badge color will look nice on the same color STR I have like yours. Would you mind sharing a pic of which color Supercharged Badge you went with? I was planning on getting this one (see pic below) for the Platinum color STR, what do you think? The inner white circle area is the only that might not make it work on a Silver colored paint body. Hmmmmm.......

Thanks.

 

Where do u get a flat badge? Dealer, ebay etc, Simple change? https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...e-emblem-9639/ Post #12 Why do people steal the leaper? Can't think of an answer that won't get deleted.

 

Back in 1990, while living in Hawaii, I purchased a brand new Isuzu Trooper. I drove it back to my apartment building outside Pearl Harbor. As I parked my brand new Trooper, I spied a bunch of teenagers sort of just "hanging out", checking out my new SUV.

Long story short, I went down to the Trooper the next morning, and immediately noticed the large chrome "ISUZU" mounted to the center of the grill was GONE and of course, I had no doubt as to who took it.

I never did replace that stupid emblem and until I finally traded the vehicle a few years later, every time (and I mean EVERY TIME) I looked at the front of that truck, I got REALLY pissed. In my mind's eye, I just kept seeing that big chrome ISUZU mounted to some 15 year old's wall.

Ok, I am done venting now...

 

My battery died, and I called AAA. The bonehead guy came out and when he went to open my hood .... he lifted it from the leaper. And it popped of so easily in his hand. I can't imagine he even pulled very hard, it was so ... easy. Of course he didn't even acknowledge it, simply held out his hand for me to take it and then went on to diagnose a bad alternator instead of simply jumping my battery.

I never did follow up with AAA to repair it, because thanks to the wonderful folks here I realized I could reattach it myself for $5. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY when I looked at the wires they were frayed... which told me that time and the elements had taken their toll. It was probably ready to drop off at the slightest knock anyway.

So my very soft suggestion for everyone is to simply note that just because the leaper is gone, some punk kids may or may not have ripped it off. Wires go bad, stress from extreme wind sheer and a lot of long and too fast highway driving, as well as car wash machines pushing it back and forth are eventually going to tear it up.

I am not saying that idiots don't steal them, I am SURE they do. But in my case, had it come off innocently, as it surely would have with in a day or so anyway with wires so old and deteriorated, but I wasn't there to actually SEE it... I would have mistakenly blamed some dopey rats hanging out in the back of a parking lot.

 

When the Beastie Boys became popular in the '80s it was hard to find a VW that still had it's emblem in the grille

 

Came out of my house one morning a couple of years ago to find the leaper gone and replaced it soon after. Six months later, my neighbor knocks on my door, leaper in hand and said he found it in the shrubs in his front yard while gardeniing.

Now a souvenir sits on my desk.